A member of the New York Army National Guard delivers health forms to travelers at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in New York, USA, on Thursday, December 24, 2020.
Angus Mordant | Bloomberg | Getty Images
U.S. air travel peaked on Saturday since mid-March, raising fears that the rise in holiday travel would result in a further rise in Covid-19 cases and deaths in the coming weeks. .
As the coronavirus sinks across the country, 1,192,881 people passed through airport security checkpoints on Saturday, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
Air travel continues to fall significantly compared to previous years, but increased during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays despite warnings from health experts and elected officials to limit travel and family reunions.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that the pandemic could likely worsen in the coming weeks as the United States experiences a delayed impact of post-Christmas holiday travel.
“That’s what’s happening. It’s terrible, it’s unfortunate, but it was predictable,” Fauci, one of the country’s leading infectious disease experts, said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
December was the deadliest and most infectious month of the pandemic in the US. The country averages more than 2,600 deaths each day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Three states have also found cases of new coronavirus strain more transmissible in people without a travel history.
The general surgeon, Dr. Jerome Adams, on Sunday, urged Americans to wear masks and social distances to help moderate the projected growth of infections.
“What we do now is important,” Adams said in an interview with CNN. “If you’ve met during the holidays away from home without a mask, there are still steps you can take right now.”
“You can still self-quarantine. You can test yourself, knowing that more than 50% of the spread is now among asymptomatic people,” he added.